Symposium

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I'm going to be talking in public! About Post It Politics! In front of people! And I hope you can join in! I will be taking part in Humans 2.0: the Sixth Annual Honors Humanities Keystone Symposium. You can come see me at Tawes Hall at the University of Maryland at 10:30 AM. I will be speaking about conclusions from my project, and will probably be doing some real deep analysis about my favorite memes. It should be buckets of fun. Hoping to see lots of support for all of the Honors Humanities folks and all of the hard work they've done preparing for this event. 

In the meantime though, why don't I give the run down of some images that have been circulating since the last time I've updated this blog. 

1). First up is the red Human Rights Campaign logo. It hit the web on March 25, after the Supreme Court began hearing cases regarding Same Sex marriage. 

Circulated by HRC to spread their message of marriage and love, millions of pro-gay marriage people changed their profile picture too this for the days following March 25. And of course, as with any viral image, plenty of people (and organizations and celebrities and business) decided to get creative with it. 

(Note: This collage was taken from viralpoliticsblog.wordpress.com, a great new blog by Dr. Joel Penney that gives "an academic take on the political uses of memes, viral videos, and all things social media." I highly suggest you check it out, especially considering Dr. Penney will probably be a little more reliable when it comes to new posts...)

However, this image has also created some interesting dialogue around the effectiveness of this viral campaign. Do Facebook profile pics actually influence anyone politically? Or are they simply a showing of solidarity? Can this solidarity be enough to create influence? How is someone who changes their profile different than someone who attends a rally? Do supreme court justices even have Facebooks?

2. Another striking moment for imagery surrounded the death of Margaret Thatcher on April 8th. The moment that the death of the former PM was announced, the internet seemed to not know how to handle the situation. As some gave sad goodbyes due to the passing of a legendary woman, others gave shouts of joy to the death of a tyrant. Meanwhile, plenty of people simply asked, "Who is Margaret Thatcher, anyway?" All of this was very well chronicled by the Guardian, not to mention accurately predicted by designer/journalist Martin Belam months and months ago. 

I believe the most striking image was this. A good-riddance farewell to the Iron Lady. A vitriolic take on mortality.

And for anyone looking for some answers surrounding Thatcher's death, or at least a different (Londonized) perspective on it, may I suggest this surprisingly deep column written by Russell Brand. "I always felt sorry for her children," he says.

3. And lastly, there was the Boston Marathon bombings. As this story unfolds, I have been unable to tell quite what these images mean. Or what they will mean. So, for the purpose of this blog, I would like to just present some of them, a montage, with hopes that a glimpse of meaning will surface through the emotions.

Dead                              Captured

Lots of feelings. Lots of questions.

Hope to see you at the symposium. Thank you for joining me in this project everyone. 

--Post It Politics out--

The Thirsty Senator

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Once again, I start this blog with an apology. For the second time in a row, I have not come through with a timely blog. All I can say: a full course load and a part-time internship will keep you busy. However, this is not my only transgression. I also, once again said that my next blog would be about sports. To this I say: but...but...politics!

Specifically, the Republican response to Obama's first State of the Union of his second term. It was just too interesting. I couldn't pass it up. 

Now, I could probably highlight specifics from Obama's speech itself, like his impassioned "They deserve a vote!" plea, or the symbolic (and now recurring) absence of conservative supreme court justices from the event. But instead, I'm going to focus on something a bit more...quenching.

That would be the most recent anointed hero of the Republican Party, Marco Rubio. A clear favorite for the Republican nominee for President in 2016 because of his Latino heritage and clean-cut image, he's been getting a lot of press since Obama's reelection, including making the cover of Time magazine.

Rubio made sure to appeal to the Christian vote, tweeting "There is only one savior and it is not me #Jesus"

Therefore, Rubio was a natural choice to deliver the Republican response on Tuesday. His speech itself contained few surprises. It congratulated Obama for his service, criticized his position on health care and taxes, and made appeals to the middle class. However, what did grab people's attention was that Rubio, throughout the night, seemed to be suffering from an acute case of dry mouth, epitomized in this moment, toward the end of the speech.

Twitter exploded. One of the most awkward moments during a speech like this that I can recall, and not really the kind of momentum a rising politician seeking legitimacy craves during his or her first national exposure.

(For those who are not perturbed by body noises, I also suggest you check out this video, highlighting the audibleness of Rubio's thirst)

However, this event has done lots to prove that any press is good press. Poland Spring, whose product was so surprisingly featured in this video, didn't miss a chance to profit from their cameo with this Facebook pic.

And I think the most surprising thing from the whole night was how well Rubio responded on social media with his quick swig. Almost immediately after he tweeted a picture of his mini-bottle, and commented the next day that after receiving 13,000+ followers on Twitter, he should drink water in the middle of all his speeches. Conservative groups are already fundraising with Rubio water bottles. This moment is living proof that really, when it comes to these little absurdities for political figures, all press is good press. I don't think this is the last we've seen of this bottle water craze. Good, bad, or neutral, it's going to be a symbol for Rubio and his political career.

Now, before I wrap up this blog, I do want to make clear that there is a lot of stuff that I haven't been able to blog about due to being so busy. Moving forward, I'm not sure if I'll be able to blog reliably about this stuff or not. So instead, I'm going to start posting links here to what's hot in political imagery. Perhaps in the future I'll get a chance to delve deeper into the topics that I bring up. But for now, enjoy!

• First, speaking of Republican presidential front runners, you gotta look into Chris Christie eating a donut on Letterman. The man's celebrity status is going through the roof. Right now he can't seem to do any wrong. This is coupled with him calling out a former White House doc who went national in warning him about health. Don't mess with Jersey. 
• Also, I do want to bring attention to all the crazy stuff in sports. I've neglected it, and that makes me feel bad. Though not quite political, stuff like this grabs the American public like none other and gets people talking about issues and creating images probably even better than politics. I'll start with our perception and suspicion of cheaters, especially Lance Armstrong's confession and Deer Antler Spray. Then there's the whole Manti Te'o hoax. And heck, I'll even throw in the Super Bowl power outage in here
• Speaking of the Super Bowl, this Dodge Ram Super Bowl ad about farming is getting all sorts of reaction.
• Pope resigns. About the most symbolic thing that's perhaps happened in the last, oh I don't know, 6 centuries or so. Gotta meme that.

I'm Not Going To See This Again

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
So perhaps putting this blog out makes me a liar, but hey, it's my blog, so I make the rules. Yes, I know that I said that it would be a week before my next blog. And yes, I know it was supposed to be about sports. But somehow I neglected the fact that we had a presidential inauguration in our midst.

And when a moment like this happens, imagery steeped in history and humility, both at the same time, it begs to be brought to the public's attention.

I would go on to explain this photo and the moment that it represents, but really, Rachel Maddow, in the below clip, does it better justice. So for the sake of keeping this particular post nice and short, I'll refer you to there.

And yes, I realize that bringing you to a TV news clip (and an NBC one at that) after my last blog is a bit hypocritical of me. I don't do this because I believe that Rachel Maddow is immune to the ills of broadcasting. In fact, she's probably more afflicted by those ills than most. But here, she doesn't miss.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For me, moments like these are what separate Obama the politician, Obama the leader, Obama the icon, from Obama the man. Moments like these are why we have, all politics aside, a folk hero in our midst. A living legend. "I'm not going to see this again." Boy, does that ring true.

@Post_It_2013

PS--I would be remiss not to put up some of the funnier moments from the inauguration. These gifs and pics of Chuck Schumer, Bill Clinton, and Michelle Obama have led to internet gold

The Trillion Dollar Coin

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Apparently, we're moving closer and closer to a (potential) deal over the debt ceiling. Maybe, in the upcoming weeks, congress will finally move past all of this controversy over how we're paying for what and start to legislate on things that don't get people quite so riled up, like, ya know, gun control or something. Therefore, it seems that the whole controversy (can we even call it controversy? Maybe more like tomfoolery) over the the idea to avert the debt ceiling crisis through issuing a trillion dollar coin is behind us (especially since it looks like the Fed has put the kibosh on the platinum wonder nickel). 

Now, it's not my goal in this particular blog to show how people have used images to mock this particular idea. Why is that? Because the media has already done so in seemingly every report about the trillion dollar coin. Instead, I would like to discuss for a bit why this story gets any traction in the first place. 

Now most Americans, like myself, are not economists. That's why when watch and read the news about the coin, we become so dumbfounded. Partially, it's because we can at least understand the basics of what could be the problem here. We know that inflation is a thing, and that countries that just create mass amounts of money out of thin air do not have a great track record, and that keeping congress completely separate from some sort of budget solution probably doesn't create the greatest precedent. Therefore, we get behind the Jon Stewarts of the world, and call out the economists who have started to go against the grain.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The back and forth between the pundit and the economist. It's just such good TV, that we forget how we arrived at this junction in the first place.

Here is where I would like to draw your attention to something written by one of my favorite YouTubers, C.G.P. Grey, an online educator who makes short videos explaining topics both mainstream and obscure with easy-to-follow graphics. However, what I am referring to is a blog post, written by C.G.P Grey,  criticizing the following NBC News clip (and really all TV news as a whole).

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The puns. The cuts to practically unrelated media. Unrelated questions about coin size that have absolutely nothing to do with currency. BIEBER?!?! C.G.P. Grey blogs, this whole clip does nothing to actually accomplish the matter at hand: explaining the coin in the first place. Instead, all we get is the same shtick. The economy is going down the tubes, let's blame congress, because, after all, it is ridiculous. C.G.P Grey explains that this is because the news has become about keeping the ratings up by keeping the complexity of issues down and actually reporting. I would like to take this stance, and focus it in on the trillion dollar coin. This scenario that the news media has found itself in has created this trillion dollar coin fiasco in the first place. And lo and behold, it has to do with imagery.

The media exists to report on crisis, but here, no crisis existed. Oh sure, some fringe economists have been saying (for a quite a while actually, we just only really start hearing about it now) that this is an option for Obama to circumvent congress, and sure Paul Krugman, who has plenty of respect amongst economists, stated that a trillion dollar coin should be an option in the event that we don't avoid the debt crisis through more reasonable terms, but this coin was never going to happen. The fed would never allow such a media blitz to dictate how it should regulate the economy, and the only reason Obama and any other member of congress wouldn't come out in full force against the coin (besides just not wanting to give the issue the time of day) was because it's just not sound politics to go public to potential voters that an emergency action that could possibly save the economy is completely off the table.

But as if the media cares. A coin? A platinum coin? Through some commemorative coin loophole nonsense? We can sell this. People can visualize the entire US economy hinging on delivering a single coin. No need to focus on the problem at hand. Bad districting. Party structure. How government debt actually functions. That doesn't pop. But a coin! We'll be able to juice that for at least a week! And we won't even have to make our segments on it make sense!

And so it went. Think back to this the next time some harebrained scheme bubbles up out of the 24-hour news cycle. Does it actually exist, or is it just too bad to be true?

Thanks for reading. Truly though, I do hope you check out C.G.P. Grey's videos. They're some of the best insights I've seen into the way things are and the way things should be.

And get excited! My next blog post is already in the works. Unsurprisingly perhaps, it's going to be about what has taken over the news networks since the platinum coin has fallen from favor: Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o. It'll be interesting to see what other info comes in over the next couple of days, and what the public does with that. In any case, I hope to have it up sometime next week. Keep an eye out ;)

@Post_It_2013

Les Fiscal Aftermath?

Monday, January 7, 2013

Hey, check this out! My first post-project post! Something out there must have caught my attention.

So, kinda contrary to the prediction from my December 3rd blog, our congress has managed to skid our country right to the edge of the precipice that was the fiscal cliff. Now, it doesn't take a genius to realize that this means that our country could still be in plenty of financial danger (hence the edge of the precipice metaphor), but for the most part, the American Taxpayer Relief Act, despite being a 2012 bill that managed to get passed in 2013, has given us worried Americans a moment of rest. That is, until February or so, when the debt ceiling deadline starts to loom large and we go through this whole thing all over again. *sigh* So, as congress goes ahead and gives itself a pat on the back, and the country gives out an audible groan, either from A) Not liking how the budget ended up or B) exasperation from ending up here in the first place

Fitting Scumbag themed meme

So, how has this played out in a more comprehensive way in terms of political imagery. Well, one thing that became very apparent was that in the weeks and days leading up to the end of the 2012 session was that fiscal cliff commentary and blame started to become less and less about the disfunction of congress as a whole, and more about the trials and tribulations of budget power players who didn't want to be stuck with the blame when/if a deal wasn't reached like President Obama, Mitch McConnell, Grover Norquist, and especially John Boehner, who some wondered might lose his speakership over not being able to put a deal through. And nowhere was this better represented than in my favorite meme of 2013 (thus far): Les Fiscal Miserables.

The film version of the musical Les Mis was released back in December to wide anticipation. Directed by Tom Hooper and starring everyone from Anne Hathaway to Hugh Jackman, it has purportedly lived up to the hype (I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. GOSH! KYLE! GET ON THAT!) So, the country and the world is on a bit of a Les Mis craze right now. And what better than a cultural phenomenon all about solitude and struggle to comment on contemporary politics?

Ain't that the truth

Meanwhile Boehner makes quite the Thenardier

Until of course things start to fall apart

All of these have come from lesfiscalmiserables.tumblr.com, which I highly suggest that you check out. On it, you can watch the characterization of all these budgetary players play out from New Years eve when the crisis came to a climax. Boehner crying. Obama's eventual rally and the "triumph" of getting a law signed at all. Grover Norquist not taking anyone's shit. It's all there.

Now, was taking the whole of congress and breaking it down into a complex groups of not-quite-heroes and not-quite-villains a good way to view this event? I'd say so. I believe that before, when no one was able to claim (or really even wanted) responsibility for the situation, compromise was impossible. Yet, not unlike a classic novel or renowned musical, when the public begins to perceive the motives and standpoints of the characters involved, a plot begins to develop.

This isn't to say that we should be happy about the budget, or unnecessarily proud of our leaders. The one common theme across all the commentary about this budget is that it's not one that anyone is entirely happy with (especially when all of the pork barrel projects in it came to light, from NASCAR to Hollywood. That's where it seems that next big public reaction is probably going to come in response to this budget, and along with it will probably come a slew of images). Yet, maybe it's just my opinion as an image analyst, but it's good to see political imagery actually bring about understanding as opposed to just distracting people from worthwhile issues. And perhaps helping to instigate change along the way.

@Post_It_2013

Sandy Hook

Monday, December 17, 2012

I'll try to make this, my last blog for a while, short and sweet.

What happened in Newtown, CT, on Friday, has brought how events cause us to think about events and politics to the forefront. And I feel at a loss for words. Or at least, I don't feel that I have anything to add to the conversation. Not yet. Or perhaps I'm merely reluctant. It seems that everywhere across the country, we just want to get through this weekend. This holiday season. This year. We want to pick up the pieces. And then we want to figure out what fatal flaw is antagonizing our nation. And we'll disagree. But that's politics.

I won't include any photos or links in today's blog. I'm not seeking to put together a "Top Ten Most Depressing Pictures" album or anything like that. We've seen them. On the news. On Facebook. And if there's any topic that I mention in this blog, feel free to google it. Anyway, these pictures follow the trends we've seen. Aurora. Columbine. Even September 11th. However, there's something different about this one. Something is making the country want to talk. I don't know if it's because these kids were so young. Or because the act seems so nonsensical. Or because so many such tragedies of this scale have happened during the Obama presidency. Conversations are developing. I'll list them here.

• Our obsession with the image and identity of the murderer. Ever since Columbine, and perhaps even before that, there has been the concept of the celebrity mass shooter. The moment a shooting happens, we want to see the face of who did it. It's getting to the point that if we had our way, we'd want to know the persons name, and get a picture of their face on CNN, even before the shooting was confirmed over. After Sandy Hook, people have awakened to there being something wrong about this. This has come from two sources. First, from people confusing the murderer from his older brother after major news networks started distributing screenshots from the brother's Facebook page. And second, how we celebritize the shooter, in spite of the victims. This happened after a viral Facebook thread started circulating, which was (wrongly) attributed to Morgan Freeman. It spoke to how we need to stop looking up the murderer's name. Stop searching for a picture of his face. Don't give these murderers the attention that they expect, even crave. Still. I fully suspect that there will be that one famous image of the murderer that all the major news networks use. It's been that way for every shooting I can recall. It won't change now. We need an image of someone to blame. Otherwise we feel that we won't know who to stop next time. Even if we can't stop them.
• Guns. Guns, and images of guns, and types of guns, and gun laws, and legal guns, and illegal guns, and the meaning of guns, are once again part of the national conversation. And with that has come the even more testy topic of when is it ok to talk about gun control. After Aurora and the murder/suicide that happened in Kansas City on December 1st, there was much outcry about politicians and journalists using these tragic circumstances to try to talk about gun control laws while communities and families were still grieving. This was especially true after Bob Costas read a statement about gun control during the halftime of the Kansas City Chiefs game that followed the murder there. But what has occurred at Sandy Hook has caused an outcry, and it looks like if there's ever going to be presumably necessary gun control talks, they're going to happen now.
• This is related to the above topic, but politicizing the dead. Using the existence of dead bodies to force political conversations. Is it ethical? Is it unethical to do nothing? 
• And finally, mental health. What drives someone to do something like this; to target those who have obviously done you no harm? We've tried to try to rationalize shootings as the work of the angered, the outsider, the terrorist, or the criminal. Now it seems that the real talk is about how do mentally unstable people fit in to our nicely constructed categories. Or are all murders unstable. Or are there no categories. 

Images, from photos, to memorials, to memes, will surface around these categories, and perhaps even new categories. I will report on them, if it feels acceptable. As if any of this can ever feel acceptable.

This is my last post for the semester. Check back every once and again, especially if there seems to be a big story in the news, or an interesting political image going around. Or, you know, if you see one of my Post-it notes somewhere (cause that's still a thing). Also, later this spring, I will be presenting my Post It Politics work at the Honors Humanities symposium, and perhaps even making the scholarly side of my work public in some fashion (Does that make me a scholar? A meme scholar? How quaint). So I'll let you know about that when the time comes.

For now, please, give someone you love a hug. And have a joyous transition into the new year. May it be full of friends and family and other people that you like.

So long

(wow, this blog stopped being short and sweet a while ago...)

@Post_It_2012

Kim Jong-Un: The Creation of Image Personalities

Monday, December 10, 2012

Today I'd like to delve a little deeper into the realms of personality politics. (I know. It's surprising. Somehow in a blog primarily concerned about campaigns we haven't said everything that could possibly be said about personality politics already.) I would like to do this by focusing in on Kim Jong-un and the news that he has been making lately. Wait, except, it's not exactly him that's making the news. Alright, stay tuned. You'll see.

As most of you probably know, Kim Jong-un is the supreme leader of North Korea, succeeding his father Kim Jong-il after his death in December 2011. The internet almost immediately took a "liking" to Jong-un. Memes, cartoons, satire of every kind sprung up about the young ruler, a sampling of which (along with some background info) can be viewed here. Maybe it has to do with his chubby, boy-like demeanor, which juxtaposes so nicely with one of the most brutal, totalitarian regimes of the modern era. The carryover from Kim Jong-il and his cult of personality, and the comedy that resulted from that didn't help. I would especially like to direct your attention to kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com, which is exactly what it sounds like. Pictures of Kim Jong-il observing the products of his industrious (?) nation. In the words of that blogs author, "Why is it so funny? I have no idea either."

So, it should be no surprise that 4chan took an automatic, worshipful reverence to Jong-un. For those who don't know, 4chan is an online image sharing forum that has become one of the most infamous sites on the internet, not only for its ability to create memes, but also for its (rather psychotic) trolling and hacking capabilities. On regular a basis, 4chan will rise as one, accomplishing tasks such as hacking Sarah Palin's email account or tracking down animal abusers whose videos end up online. The benevolence and malevolence of 4chans actions are reputably random. For 4chan users, it's a lot less about whether or not what they do is good or bad, and more about that they can.

One activity that 4chan often engages in is mass voting on internet polls to manipulate the results. Recently, it decided that a worthwhile activity would be voting up Kim Jong-un in the online poll for Time's Person of the Year, which Time magazine (probably) takes into account for their selection. As reported by the Huffington Post here, success is imminent.

*Also included in this article are links to a story about China's Communist Party newspaper reporting on the Onion selecting Kim Jong-un as the Sexiest Man Alive without knowing that it was satirical. Just another mystifying display of the image culture surrounding young Jung-un.

However, the never complacent 4chan, then looked to the next feat in this game of voting, aiming to not only get Kim Jong-un atop the poll, but to also make the rest of the poll spell out KJUGASCHAMBERS with the first letter of each candidates name. And apparently as of December 8th, they've succeeded. 

I think this whole event says a lot about the circulation of personalities as opposed to politics online. Increasingly, information communities have moved online and into spaces where people are concerned more with novelty than with actual political implications. Now, that's not to say that these spaces are devoid of actual political gauge or influence. There's a reason that 4chan and the internet community are drawn to the political situation in North Korea in the first place, and that 4chan decided to make the Time poll spell K(im)J(ong)U(n)GASCHAMBERS as opposed to KFCBUTTSEX (which was apparently the second choice). But lately, the staying power of these political figures has to do with how much modern audiences are willing to spread this figure (most often online). This can explain the phenomenon behind Kony 2012, and the fact that Time named it the #1 viral video of 2012. Meanwhile, other similarly terrible world leaders such as Hugo Chavez, or even Bashar al-Assad do not get the same attention. No ridiculousness? No viral videos produced by comedians or activist groups? No 4chan love.

Alright, so moving on to a little bit about this blog itself. Seeing that this is the second to last Monday of the semester here at the University of Maryland, I believe that this will be my second to last blog post, or at least for a while. I'll do a final post next week, perhaps wrapping up some loose ends and talking about whatever else might be on my mind. And then, from there on out, my maintenance of Post It Politics will be more sporadic, with me blogging about things as they come up, instead of scrounging for imagery on a weekly basis. (Is scrounging the right word? Does it seem like I'm scrounging? Maybe not. Either way). So tune in next week! Until, then, don't be too ronery.

@Post_It_2012